Onions from seed.

[veggiechicken]

Mister, eh Mister, mine have straightened up Now I'll have to look back to Step 2

[Potstubsdustbins]

Mister, eh Mister, mine have straightened up Now I'll have to look back to Step 2

Must be the sunshine of your smile

Potty

[veggiechicken]

Probably Potty! I keep them beside my dentures overnight
(Its a lie, I don't have falsies)

[Potstubsdustbins]

Well not teeth anyway

Potty

[Aberdeenplotter]

AP I have done mine in individual cells a seed per cell. At the moment they are in seed cutting compost and I was hoping that at the appropriate time I can pot on into 3" pots of MPC without root disturbance.

Does this make sense?

Colin

absolutely Potty.

[veggiechicken]

Well not teeth anyway

Potty

Wots mine's my own All home grown

[Aberdeenplotter]

Wots mine's my own All home grown

Chuck em over, there's a love

[veggiechicken]

Blimey Ap, they're not that big

[Potstubsdustbins]

Thanks AP, in your words onward and upward.

Potty

[Bigmallly]

AP, any chance of a pic of the wire hoop, I'm still confused.........it seems a rather large loop for one seedling.

[SarzWix]

I have germination on most of the F1 types, the Red Giants are just starting to show through as well Because I'm not going for prize-winning size, my cells are multi sown, ie a pinch of seed in each cell. The F1s I'll leave as they are to push each other apart, the Red Giants I'll nip off the weaker seedlings

[Aberdeenplotter]

Those of you who have managed to germinate your seed and prick out the seedlings will be finding that the seedlings tend to flop about a bit. I stake mine using a bottle of wine and some thin tying wire

Make sure it's a nice wine as it's really an empty bottle you need. Cut as many 9" lengths of tying wire as you have onions. Straighten the wire then wind a loop around the neck of the wine bottle. Remove from the wine bottle and then fold so that the loop is at right angles to the remaining length of wire. Insert in the compost close to a seedling making sure that the seedling is through the loop. That will support the seedling for a week or two

here's a pic showing from the left, the straight length of wire, the wire with the loop made and finally the loop (standing on its head) turned at 90 degrees . Not too technical. If you want to prevent the loop turning about in the pot, cut another length of wire and wind it around the loop opposite the stem to make another leg.

[Aberdeenplotter]

and here's a pic showing the staked seedlings.

edit note. although the loops look quite big, remember onion plants grow quite quickly and future growth is provided for.

[Bigmallly]

Cheers AP, I had the principle right, I bent mine round a large felt tip pen which gave a half inch diam hoop and that looked huge. I was unsure whether to put all the seedlings in the one hoop........

[Aberdeenplotter]

The size of the hoop is irrelevant really so long as it achieves the objective of keeping each plant vertical.

If growing large onions for exhibition, that needs to be the objective until the bulbs are harvested. Onions tend to natuarally flop over when they think they have done all the growing they want to do. I firmly believe that keeping them erect keeps them growing.

Turning back to the wine bottle. Unless it's one of those deliberately skewed by the likes of J P Chenet as part of the branding, the shoulders of a wine bottle demonstrate what is being looked for in terms of "form". i.e. the shoulders of the onion should have the same shape looked at from any angle. Not necessarily the shape of the wine bottle mind. A wine bottle shaped onion would be a little unusual